Only known handwritten final draft of MLK Jr’s I Have A Dream speech to be auctioned
Summary
Christie’s plans to auction in New York the only known handwritten final full draft of Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech. The auction house expects it to sell for more than $10 million, with proceeds going to several charities, including the King Center in Atlanta.Key Facts
- Christie’s says the draft will be displayed publicly from January 15 to 21 before a single-lot auction.
- The document was rediscovered in 2024 in a desk drawer that had belonged to King aide Edward T. Clayton.
- Clayton’s widow, Xernona, had found the pages in the late 1990s but did not know they were the only known final draft.
- King wrote the draft in blue ink on seven yellow legal-pad pages at Washington’s Willard hotel in the early hours of August 28, 1963, according to Christie’s.
- The pages contain edits and crossed-out text.
- The draft does not contain the words “I have a dream”; Christie’s says King added them while delivering the speech.
- King delivered the speech in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963.
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